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Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

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Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#11

Post by hmahncke »

dkarl wrote: post #3

I feel like a change. There’s another side of my writing self that I need to explore: the messy, chaotic, undisciplined side. The undignified side. His next book was The Unconsoled , which is on the way to my mailbox. I'm a bit scared of it. It's supposed to be a glorious mess and impossible to enjoy if you try to make the wrong kind of sense out of it. I'm extra nervous (and also excited) because I didn't get much o…

If your part-way through The Buried Giant, it has a solid ending (IMHO) - like Never Let Me Go, the characters realize that they have made some foundational assumptions that aren't quite right, but unlike that novel they do have the opportunity to change those assumptions - for better or worse

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#12

Post by niuzeta »

scrumper wrote: post #2

Commenting here mainly as I don't want this to drop off. It's a good interview with a really very wonderful writer. HN'ers unfamiliar with his work might really enjoy Never Let Me Go, a very affecting novel which you could plausibly call sci-fi.

+ for "The Remains of the Day". Phenomenal work of literature. Truthfully, I can't believe it took it this long for Ishiguro to get the prize.

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#13

Post by jackschultz »

In these types of threads people always jump in and suggest their favorite books of the author. In my case, it's Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World, the two novels they talk about in the article. I've been such a fan of Remains of the Day after reading it a couple years ago that I've bought it a couple times and shipped it to friends to make sure they read it. I read An Artist of the Floating World earlier this summer and that stuck with me as well. Fantastic fantastic. I've also read Never Let Me Go but it didn't quite do it for me, something felt off in a way that's difficult to express and not worthy of talking about here.

I'll say this though, make sure to read Remains of the Day and then move to Artist of the Floating World. Both about WWII and people's opinions and feelings from what happened in their world. Not the longest of novels, so reading them back to back is the way to go.

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#14

Post by malkia »

jackschultz wrote: post #13

In these types of threads people always jump in and suggest their favorite books of the author. In my case, it's Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World, the two novels they talk about in the article. I've been such a fan of Remains of the Day after reading it a couple years ago that I've bought it a couple times and shipped it to friends to make sure they read it. I read An Artist of the Floating Worl…

I've read the book (Remains of the Day), after reading a post here few years ago. Haven't read the one though (yet).

- yes I did! Thank you http://hn.algolia.com - here is my post saying that I did (lol) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7541291 - but I can't find the post which mentioned it (must've been here)

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#15

Post by Zanni »

shoo wrote: post #7
scrumper wrote: post #2

Commenting here mainly as I don't want this to drop off. It's a good interview with a really very wonderful writer. HN'ers unfamiliar with his work might really enjoy Never Let Me Go, a very affecting novel which you could plausibly call sci-fi.

I've read "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". Enjoyed the former. I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. That doesn't mean it is a bad book, or bad literature, but reading pages and…

Never Let Me Go is an excellent example of the maxim that an idea is worth 1% and execution is worth 99%. It is brilliant, haunting, beautiful and tragic--one of the best books I've ever read--yet it shares its central conceit with a truly awful Michael Bay movie.

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#16

Post by JoshTriplett »

shoo wrote: post #7
scrumper wrote: post #2

Commenting here mainly as I don't want this to drop off. It's a good interview with a really very wonderful writer. HN'ers unfamiliar with his work might really enjoy Never Let Me Go, a very affecting novel which you could plausibly call sci-fi.

I've read "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". Enjoyed the former. I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. That doesn't mean it is a bad book, or bad literature, but reading pages and…

> I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo.

That is an incredibly useful and insightful anti-recommendation, thank you. That's consistently a property of stories that make me want to throw them away in disgust.

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#17

Post by michaelchisari »

shoo wrote: post #7
scrumper wrote: post #2

Commenting here mainly as I don't want this to drop off. It's a good interview with a really very wonderful writer. HN'ers unfamiliar with his work might really enjoy Never Let Me Go, a very affecting novel which you could plausibly call sci-fi.

I've read "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". Enjoyed the former. I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. That doesn't mean it is a bad book, or bad literature, but reading pages and…

> No volition to change the status quo.

I interpreted that as proof that they weren't fully human. There was a constant discussion about whether they had a soul, and fruitless efforts to prove it through art, expression, love. But in the end, they all lacked the will to survive.

Most human beings, even those that are hardly extraordinary would have fought against those circumstances. But none of the Hailsham children did. They always, ultimately, accepted their fates, showing that they are more cattle than human.

Maybe that is an even more dystopian reading of an already dystopian novel, but I've read the novel twice and watched the film, and I keep coming back to it.

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#18

Post by [deleted] »

qualitytime wrote: post #4
scrumper wrote: post #2

Commenting here mainly as I don't want this to drop off. It's a good interview with a really very wonderful writer. HN'ers unfamiliar with his work might really enjoy Never Let Me Go, a very affecting novel which you could plausibly call sci-fi.

On another recent HN thread someone also gave a glowing impression of the film adaptation of this work. I went ahead and rented out the movie and I have to say, for me personally, I really wish I could get back the time wasted.

[deleted]

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#19

Post by andyjohnson0 »

qualitytime wrote: post #4
scrumper wrote: post #2

Commenting here mainly as I don't want this to drop off. It's a good interview with a really very wonderful writer. HN'ers unfamiliar with his work might really enjoy Never Let Me Go, a very affecting novel which you could plausibly call sci-fi.

On another recent HN thread someone also gave a glowing impression of the film adaptation of this work. I went ahead and rented out the movie and I have to say, for me personally, I really wish I could get back the time wasted.

I posted something complementary about the film adaptation - so if it was my comment you read, my apologies!

For what it's worth, I think it was beautifully filmed and well acted - the actor who played Tommy did an exceptional job in my opinion.

Re: Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

#20

Post by andyjohnson0 »

shoo wrote: post #7
scrumper wrote: post #2

Commenting here mainly as I don't want this to drop off. It's a good interview with a really very wonderful writer. HN'ers unfamiliar with his work might really enjoy Never Let Me Go, a very affecting novel which you could plausibly call sci-fi.

I've read "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". Enjoyed the former. I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. That doesn't mean it is a bad book, or bad literature, but reading pages and…

> yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo.

The DVD of the film adaptation of Never Let Me Go has an interesting interview with Ishiguro. In it, he mentions that he is often asked about why the Students were so passive and accepting of their fate. From memory, he says that the book is allegorical: the students are no more able the escape their kind of mortality than we are of our (different) outcome. Nobody can escape from their own life.

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